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Evaluation GuideBusiness Analytics

Capital Project Planning Performance Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express

2 Capital Project Planning Performance Blueprint

Introduction What if it were possible to have a single capital expenditure planning system that met the needs of your divisions all over the world and enabled each planner to submit capital expenditure requests in their local currency while consolidating real-time in the home country currency? And wouldn’t it be more productive to be able to link capital expenditure requests, request justifications, work hours required for capital projects and depreciation projections so that you could create a better forecast for all capital spending requirements? Having this would enable decision makers to continually fine-tune projected capital expenditures and perform rapid what-if analysis to maintain forward visibility into their capital plans. And capital projections could be indicators of future treasury needs and their effects on other organizational planning processes.

That is the purpose of the IBM Cognos® Capital Project Planning Performance Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express—to align capital planning, depreciation expense projections and other capital spending requirements such as dedicated engineering or IT time. The Blueprint enables decision makers to reach consensus on a capital plan while understanding the financial impact of their decisions on both income and cash flow.

In addition, planners can plan in their local currency while rolling up total spending to home country currency views, and they can customize depreciation calculations to match their own country’s accounting standards.

Business Analytics 3

IBM Cognos Performance BlueprintsAs part of its portfolio of industry-leading software solutions, IBM offers IBM Cognos Performance Blueprints, which are predefined data, process and policy models that provide best-practice approaches to performance management. Provided at no additional cost to IBM customers, Performance Blueprints feature dashboards, analytical reports, pre-configured data models and more to facilitate rapid time-to-value.

Designed in collaboration with industry leaders and some of our most successful customers, each Blueprint is a Web-based process using solutions from the IBM Cognos performance management platform, such as IBM Cognos Express. The

developers of Performance Blueprints design these models and processes so that most companies can use them with little or no additional coding or IT intervention. Companies can also configure Performance Blueprints to support alternative model requirements and to accommodate planning in any environment.

Blueprints are pre-populated with common operational drivers and business structures, dramatically reducing the time required to deploy a new performance management process. Customers benefit from proven practices in model design that greatly reduce investment in implementation time and resources.

4 Capital Project Planning Performance Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express

Introducing the Capital Project Planning Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos ExpressThe Capital Project Planning Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express facilitates an effective process that blends capital planning with analysis of the impact of planning decisions on income statements, along with balance sheets and cash flows. To that end, it has features that:

Streamline the capital planning process with personalized •

analytics and easy-to-manage workflowProvide management with justification for each •

capital request

Support assessments based on capital request priorities •

and riskManipulate timing or amount of capital expenditures and •

compare several different adjustment scenarios, with the ability to route those scenarios to reviewersProvide depreciation methods that match accounting •

standards in various countriesAllow for planning individual expenditures in local currency •

while consolidating in home-country currencyTrack depreciation on existing assets and forecast assets for •

a complete view of projected depreciation expense

Capital Project Planning Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express AnalysisIBM Cognos Express presents information in many forms, including detailed, tailored analyses and up-to-date information from a capital planning process with current actual spend to date. This provides real-time context for all forecasting projections.


Figure 1. Capital project planning overview


To aid analysis, planners can develop their own personalized views of templates. For example, they can home in on the

depreciation of all manufacturing equipment by narrowing the asset category or type in the subset editor.

Figure 2. Asset type selection


PlanningPlanners can easily adjust capital requests with Web-based templates that are customized to their specific areas of responsibility. In IBM Cognos Express, a financial planning manager or administrator driving the capital planning projects

assembles the capital expense planning application—along with corporate targets—and deploys it with its templates to the different contributors in the business functions or units. Planners then enter details to classify expenditures, prioritize and justify their requests.

Figure 3. Capital requests overview


Planners can request the dollar amount and expected timing of an expenditure. During the review process, planners

or approvers can easily adjust the amounts or timing of the various requests.

Figure 4. Capital planning adjustments


Because advanced personalization is blended with workflow activities in IBM Cognos Express, each contributor can dynamically build his own set of what-if scenarios for comparison purposes. Perhaps the completion of a particular project in manufacturing has been extended by six months.

With the IBM Cognos Express capability for personalized scenarios, the planner can postpone purchases of assets, test different assets and adjust purchase times. He can then share this with his manager and other team members and submit the best scenario for the overall plan.

Figure 5. Choose scenario overview


Figure 6. Capital planning adjustments

As planners populate their templates, depreciation expenses are automatically calculated on the approved requests and

all data saved in the templates are then updated in the pre-built dashboards


SummaryThe Capital Project Planning Blueprint Powered by IBM Cognos Express maximizes insight into capital expenditures. This in turn drives stronger business performance because of improved alignment with corporate goals and strategic initiatives. Decision-makers can make informed choices and changes to help meet operational, tactical and corporate goals. With near real-time data access and personalized analytics, the impact of decisions is clearly traceable and provides a road map to the achievement of strategic initiatives and goals.

About IBM Business AnalyticsIBM Business Analytics software delivers complete, consistent and accurate information that decision-makers trust to improve business performance. A comprehensive portfolio of business intelligence, advanced analytics, financial performance and strategy management and analytic applications gives you clear, immediate and actionable insights into current performance and the ability to predict future outcomes. Combined with rich industry solutions, proven practices and professional services, organizations of every size can drive the highest IT productivity and deliver better results.

For more informationFor further information or to reach a representative: ibm.com/cognos

Request a callTo request a call or to ask a question, go to ibm.com/cognos/contactus. An IBM Cognos representative will respond to your enquiry within two business days.

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Produced in Canada December 2010 All Rights Reserved

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